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“Ignore him and tell me everything,” Tami demanded as they moved into the sun. Nicole ran over and hugged her mother’s waist tightly.
“Tami this is Joel, Joel my best friend Tami Martin.”
“So…do I kick your butt now or later?” Tami asked with a furious look.
“Depends on if you mean for the past of the present?” Joel countered. “For the past I’ll accept it but for right now, I think that butt kicking belongs to Paige. She’s the one refusing to take a chance.”
“Now that’s a load of bulls…crock,” Tami said as Nicole giggled. “Paige never shies away from taking chances, she thrives on them.”
“Unless they come to her heart or possible happiness,” Jesse stated.
“You know I think I’m going to get off this mountain before I throw someone off it,” Paige said sending the two men glares. “Who wants to go home?”
“Me…is Daddy here?” Nicole said with such hope her heart tightened painfully.
“He’s waiting for you back with Grandpa. So why don’t we get a move on so we can see him hmm?”
Nicole nodded and the others followed not quite ready to give up their conversation.
Chapter 19
The climb up took three times as long on a good day but with an injured Tami and the inexperienced Nicole, it took even longer. The sun was beginning to set when they reached the base of the twisted pass.
“There’s no way to make it up that like this,” Tami said sinking down onto the ground. “And there’s no way I’m going to let Nic try and climb that.”
“She’s not going to climb it, and neither are you,” Paige told her. “Joel and Jesse are going to go up to the first level there and they’re going to pull you up while you walk the wall.”
“What about Nic?” she asked brushing her daughter’s hair from her tired face.
“I’m going to carry her.”
“No way,” Tami gasped.
“Like hell you are,” Jesse stated.
“I’ll do it,” Joel added at the same time as the other two.
“No, Tams the day you asked me to be her godmother you said it was because you knew I’d protect her with my life just as you would and that’s what I’m going to do. The two of you can make it up faster singularly. I’m lighter than you are which means I won’t put as much stress on the rocks carrying her. Clip her to my harness the way I did Brent and we’ll be good, after all I’ll have two super strong men to make sure I don’t fall, right?” she tagged on with a smile.
“Alright, first thing in the morning we’ll go,” Jesse agreed.
“Nope, now,” Paige instructed. “We’re not stopping; the fires are getting too close for us to comfortably rest. Once we’re up the pass it’ll have to jump to continue following us.”
The two men checked behind them and she saw the unmistakable look of acceptance pass between them. She settled down beside Tami and Nicole as they began to climb. When they reached the top of the first section, she helped secure Tami to the rope and watched as she slowly made her way up as Joel and Jesse pulled the rope backwards. Then it was their turn. She connected Nicole to her harness and took a deep breath before beginning to follow the jumble of rocks up.
The pass was a series of levels thrown together in a twisted mess and they sectioned it off in four parts. The first two were fairly simple and they had no issues navigating them but the third threw a curve at them and that required tiny moves to get around or a large leap of faith. She was glad to see that Tami hadn’t lost all of her nerve as she threw herself around it and settled on the other side as Jesse and Joel held tightly onto the ropes. It took her longer as she negotiated the curve slowly with deliberate steps unwilling to take a chance with Nicole on her back.
The last section was the worst, with footholds and handgrips far and few between and a smoothness that was unexpected and fooled climbers into thinking it was safe. Nicole held on tightly to her neck as she calculated the best route up for them. Tami made her way over the final ledge and hugged the two men tightly in a rush of thanks. It was then up to her to get Nicole over safely and she prayed her arms would hold out. The girl was slight but the physical exertion on top of the emotional one was pulling at her.
Three-fourths the way up she paused to re-grip and something wet hit her palm. Just what they needed…rain. It wouldn’t do any good putting out the fire, it evaporated almost before it hit it and made steam converge on them.
“You okay Paige?” Joel called down and she nodded.
“We’re good,” she replied as she pressed on. Two set of hands reached down and hauled her over the ledge as the rain started coming down harder. Joel unhooked Nicole from her back and carried her as they rushed to the cave from the night before.
Tami hugged her daughter tightly as it sliced through the air like arrows trying to pierce the ground.
“Doing alright?” she asked Nicole.
